


Here's Your Incentive

by RoseusJaeger



Series: Osu! Player AU Oneshots/Prompts [2]
Category: Free!, Osu! (Video Game), Osu! Fandom
Genre: Confessions, Crack-ish, Fluff, Games, Language, M/M, Nagisa refuses to be a scrub, Osu! Player AU, Rei is trying to be helpful, Saltiness, Sass, Shoulder rubs, Too Much Lingo, and it works, possibly ridiculous usernames
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 21:42:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7239526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseusJaeger/pseuds/RoseusJaeger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nagisa is a Catch the Beat player in osu! and he's trying to beat Nitori's score on his favorite beatmap. Just when he's starting to get frustrated, Rei makes a surprising promise to encourage him to succeed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here's Your Incentive

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second installment of the osu! player au series of one-shots/prompts. This one is a bit more romance based than the first one and featuring a different fandom. This is partially based on an exchange I saw on a beatmap thread in the forums that if someone could get a FC on the hardest difficulty of their map that they would buy that person something.  
> I've had the headcanon for awhile that if the Iwatobi team were osu! players, they would each play a different game mode. Haru would only play osu!standard, Makoto would play taiko but dabble in standard, Nagisa would play Catch the Beat (like me, lol) and Rei would play osu!mania/be a beatmapper. I kinda want to do a fic where Haru and Rin face off in multiplayer mode in this circle-clicking insanity as well.
> 
> If you're not familiar with osu!, this series might make no sense. Maybe my glossary below will help. Hopefully, this one shot won't cause too much confusion other than my inability to hold in correct tenses. This one isn't as quality as the past fics posted, probably. This took too long to write.  
> Feel free to yell at me on Tumblr at roseus-jaeger.tumblr.com and I take fanfic commissions. Want a one-shot written for you? Refer here: http://roseus-jaeger.tumblr.com/post/143866520632/roseus-jaegers-fanfiction-commissions
> 
> Any usernames the characters use are made-up and any IRL players with the same username are purely coincidental unless I say otherwise.
> 
> Glossary of Terms used in this fic in case it's needed or you know nothing about the game they're playing.(I use too much lingo):
> 
> osu!: An internet-based rhythm-click game where you click circles to the beat of a song.  
> PP Farming: The act of playing maps within or above your skill level and rank in order to grind levels and increase your number of “Performance Points” to increase your ranking. Players will activate “mods” in order to make a beatmap/level/song harder and increase the amount of PP earned.  
> Catch the Beat: A game mode in osu! where you must catch falling in-game fruit in time to the beat of a beatmap/level. Usually is abbreviated as “CtB”. It's one of the three game modes where a computer mouse or tablet is not required to play it. Recently, it is also referred to as “osu!catch”.  
> CWC and OWC: Short for “Catch the Beat World Cup” and “osu! World Cup.” It's the international yearly competition for those who play osu!standard or Catch the Beat. Naturally, the other game modes of taiko and osu!mania also have their own respective competitions.  
> RSI: A term for a muscle injury/condition caused by repetitive muscle movement. It is said playing too much osu! can cause this injury due to the repetitive motions of finger clicking on a keyboard, mouse or whatever instrument used by the player to play.  
> Jumps and Streams: Jumps are when notes in beatmaps are suddenly farther apart from each other despite their placing in the rhythm of the song, often used to add emphasis to a section of notes/beats or just to make a beatmap harder. Streams are a similar concept but instead are a section of fast paced notes that are clicked rapidly in time like a 'stream.' Hence their name.  
> “FC”: Full combo, its when you don't miss a single note in a song or level.  
> “Firetruck”: Since swearing is frowned upon in osu! chat, the f-word is replaced with firetruck and is kinda a meme on it's own. It's dumb, but you gotta try and keep the chat younger player-friendly. Private chat, not so much.

If Nagisa could explain the feeling he's experiencing right now, it would be... irritated. That's to say the least. He woke up because of the ring tone of his phone and, surprisingly enough, it was from Rin. There was a picture attachment and the text said, “He finally did it. He beat you.”  
He opened the file to see a picture of the computer screen of the red-head's laptop, that he managed to get a decent angle for the picture, and sees on the screen an osu! ranking panel. The score on it is not one of Rin's scores. It's a score from “NitoPanda”(Nitori). It's Nagisa's favorite beatmap, “Korekare no Someday” and, to Nagisa's surprise and horror, the little silver-haired bastard managed to get about a 1600x combo.  
As silly as it seems, the amount of saltiness Nagisa is experiencing right now is enough to dehydrate about five to six people. For him, that beatmap is his favorite and his worst enemy. He can never beat his 1251x combo because of the jumps and somehow Nitori beat his score. His score was his pride and joy he had proved to himself that he could play like a pro and now someone on the Samezuka team beat him. Once the saltiness sets in, now it's the horrible feeling of being a scrub.  
He texts back, “That little shit.”  
Rin, “RIP.”  
“I can't even deal with this right now, text you when I beat that scrub.”  
“Ok bruh :P”  
Nagisa snorts a bit before getting dressed and ready for school as the fact he has been beaten eats away at him from the inside.

-...-

The first person to notice something is off with Nagisa was Rei. The usual cheery and talkative nature of his club mate is replaced with an aura of mischievous darkness disguised with a smile that makes anyone around him tense. The whole class probably could feel the palpable tension but they choose to ignore it. In short, he can feel the rage radiating off his blond crush. What could be causing this much anger in Nagisa?  
He didn't find out until lunch time after Makoto asked the question, “Um, Nagisa. Are you okay? You seem tense.”  
The blond finally exploded after a half day of being eaten alive by his frustration, “That little bastard beat my high score!”  
A smirk appears on Haruka's lips and Makoto jumps a bit.  
Rei sighs, pushing up his glasses, “What exactly happened?”  
Nagisa grumbles and shows them the text from Rin. They observe it and it earns mumbles of understanding and a response of Haruka, “I guess it's time for you to show him who's MLG.”  
“But Haru-chan, it's not that simple!”  
Makoto, “Haru, not everyone can play as hard of maps as you and he plays Catch the Beat. A lot different than standard. 'Korekare no Someday' is the equivalent of 'Freedom Dive' in the level of hell map it is to you.”  
Haruka nods gives a brief nod in understanding, “That is a difficult task, sorry for misjudging.”  
The pout on Nagisa's face almost makes them feel sorry for him.  
Rei, “You can always try to beat it once we get the the club room, right?”  
Nagisa, “Yeah... but I have a feeling this is gonna take a lot longer to do than the amount of club time we have. The last time I was on a PP grind, it took me over 150 retries to just to get the score I currently have on that map.”  
Makoto, “At least you didn't tire your fingers like I did when I was trying to FC 'Crack Traxxxx'.”  
Haruka, “236 retries before you gave up. How do you have not have RSI, like Sousuke, yet?”  
“I could ask you the same, Haru-chan.”  
“... Drop the 'chan'....”  
The blond bites into his lunch with spite and a pout. He chews and swallows before complaining, “This sucks! And I thought I was ready for the CWC this year!”  
The bespectacled friend beside him reasons, “You just started being able to play approach rate 9.7 maps and you're strictly a no-mod player. I thought you wanted to be able to play approach rate 10 before entering.”  
Makoto, “Rei, you're a mania player. I would suggest you not try to give advice to Nagisa's fruit catching madness.”  
Nagisa, “Rei-chan has a point though, I promised myself I'd reach that goal... and I'm gonna beat Ai-chan's score!”  
Rei smiles at his enthusiasm. Gou joined them a little bit later and a similar discussion occurs when Nagisa complains to her as well. Her only advice, much to Nagisa's dismay, is “Get good, you scrub.”  
She has become a lot saltier since she started playing osu! with them. Online games in general tend to make people saltier. Out of the whole club, she's actually the second best player for standard mode and her and Haruka are constantly trying to beat each others' scores during club time. She would be the mid-point between Haruka's skill with jumps and Rin's ability to do streams. She may be technically lower in rank than both of them but she has higher accuracy than both of them and it takes her less retries to get a decent score because she actually hears the beats of the song instead of purely sight reading maps. The point is, Nagisa was hoping for some helpful advice and got a nice dose of salt. Great.  
Gou, being the good club manager she is, continues as if she didn't insult Nagisa, “Other than the CWC issue, I've noticed all of our accuracy has dropped by .01 to .2 percent. Since Ryugazaki-kun has been doing mapping and modding mostly this month, I can forgive an accuracy drop. You three though... Seriously, Makoto-senpai? .2 percent drop? I know you're playing 6 star maps in taiko now but don't let yourself struggle too much.”  
Makoto rubs the back of his neck and has a nervous chuckles. She continues to grill everyone and herself on their playing until it's time to go back to class. 

-...-

It's now time to meet for club time. They're technically the “E-Sports” club but in reality they all play nothing but osu! and they get past the requirements of the club having to have some kind of physical activity by going the arm stretches, wrist warm-ups and hand stretches that Rei got them into a habit of... and jumping jacks. All in the name of getting their blood pumping before playing. When they first starting doing it, it actually increased their playing stamina. Now, it's just part of club 'exercise'.  
Nagisa and Makoto slip on their wrist guards. The two of them have gotten sore muscles in the past and the wrist guards are prevention. They're not like Haruka with his ungodly muscle stamina to play up to 10 hours straight without feeling a thing. Rei isn't gonna play today because he has a lot of modding to do or he'll procrastinate just to spectate the others. Haruka and Rei have their own laptops that they set up and play with while Makoto and Nagisa have to use the school computers. Everyone logs in and collectively decide to spectate Nagisa for a bit just to see how screwed he is trying to beat Nitori.  
In spectator chat, they discuss this. The chat starts off with Makoto speaking first, then Nagisa and then Rei.

TaikoOrca: Oh boy, 1251x combo? And Nitori almost FC'd it? You gotta lot of work if you're gonna FC a 1,817 combo.  
-Pingu-: I know, firetruck my life. I just need to beat his combo and not miss any more.  
EyeOfTheBeholder: I looked at the map in editor and it is do-able. I think you're over clicking on the jumps.

Haruka jumps in.

water-kun: Over clicking jumps kills your acc.  
-Pingu-: No duh, Haru-chan -_-  
EyeOfTheBeholder: I mean, you're either over clicking or clicking too early. Also, I think your 'kawaii penguin' skin isn't helping either.  
-Pingu-: It's not my skin  
TaikoOrca: It's not his skin, Haru's skins are meant for pro-players who can ignore combo bursts and he made sure the fruit catcher was within the pixel limit. He made my skin, too.  
water-kun: I'm touched you guys still use the skins I made for you. I'm still working on one for Rei.  
EyeOfTheBeholder: That is not necessary, Haruka-senpai

Gou cuts in on their conversation to scold them.

Kou: Oh ffs, let Nagisa play before I beat the firetruck out of you all.

Everyone gives off comments of various levels of saltiness before Nagisa starts playing. They stop commenting as he plays to observe what makes him mess up. The first two tries are shit misses that are just from not paying attention, so they have no commentary other than 'lol, you choked'.  
The third time seems to be the charm but Nagisa still misses at the 1,251 combo mark and makes everyone cringe and Rei additionally sigh. It's around that time that Haruka gets bored and stops spectating to play the game himself. Nagisa pauses the game and rubs his temples. Why can't he beat his combo? This is ridiculous.  
Makoto turns from his chair and speaks to Nagisa instead of typing in chat, “At least you tried, I believe in you.”  
“Thanks, Mako-chan...” Nagisa hasn't lost hope, he was just kinda hoping that having his friends watching him play would suddenly make him do better because he tends to do better when people watch. A majority of his best plays have been done under the pressure of an audience. Gou also decides to go back to playing since she notices her brother is online and is inviting her and Haru for a multi-player game. Makoto still spectates because he doesn't really feel like playing yet.  
Rei frowns, lightly pushing his glasses up in thought. He doesn't like seeing Nagisa look so down. He watches Nagisa play some more before going back to his own beatmapping projects and club continues on as normal.

-...-

Club time comes to an end and they have to pack up and leave. Haru managed to get through a whole multi-player match without getting heated with Rin in chat, which is an accomplishment for him. Makoto managed to do some playing after watching Nagisa retry that map a few more times. Rei made the most progress out of all of them with his beatmapping that day so he early a gold star on Gou's stupid performance chart for the group.  
So far this month, Rei is racking up the most gold stars much to Nagisa and Makoto's dismay since they've actually been trying to improve their playing and Rei is getting rewarded for not playing at all. Although, beatmapping and modding are important, too. Haru could care less since he thinks the gold stars are stupid and causes unnecessary fighting between them. Well, Makoto doesn't mind being denied the gold stars as much as Nagisa since he doesn't really care. Nagisa is a different story because he'll work himself to the bone sometimes in hope of earning a gold star just to feel better about himself but Gou is often spiteful and is conservative with the gold stars. So despite all of Nagisa's hard effort, he wasn't rewarded. Even after pleading, he got none.  
Haru and Makoto say goodbye after packing up and go home. Gou leaves as well after Rei promises to close everything up. Nagisa isn't quite ready to leave yet as he sits and sulks in his chair while fiddling with his wrist guard. He kinda stares at the ceiling as he thinks of how the hell he's gonna beat Nitori's score.  
Rei is packing up his things as he calls to Nagisa, “Are you alright?”  
“Yeah, I'm okay. Rei-chan, you don't need to worry about me.” He gives him a bright smile. Rei can see the nuances in Nagisa's posture when he's stressed and sighs, “I still do worry, you're my best friend.”  
“Oh, you're really sweet but I'm fine!” He chuckles a bit and it causes Rei's heart to jump into his throat at the sound. Nagisa turns a bit in his chair to finish up making sure the computer is off and taking off his wrist guard.  
“Um, can you hold still for a second?” Rei inquired.  
“Why, Rei-chan-” He freezes when he feels a pair of hands in his shoulders but relaxes when the hands softly rub his tense shoulders, “Oh... That feels really nice~.”  
This earns him an almost giggle from Rei as he rubs out the knots in Nagisa's muscles, “You get so tense while playing.”  
“Yeah, I gotta keep my reflexes up!”  
With a shake of the head, Rei replies, “Actually, you're reflexes and playing will improve if you relax yourself.”  
“Eh? Isn't that just being careless? I shit-miss when I do that.”  
“I did at first but it gets easier. When your muscles aren't tense, you don't feel like you're using your full playing ability and can ease yourself into harder patterns.”  
Nagisa considers this and nods before replying, “Yeah, that makes sense. You give such good advice!”  
“I would hope so.”  
There's silence between them as Rei continues to massage his shoulders. Nagisa enjoys the gentle rubbing and closes his eyes, the touch of his closest friend relaxing him. He can't help but fidget a little when his hands briefly caress a little lower to his just under his shoulder blades. Rei had to bend his hands at an odd angle to reach because of his sitting position. When Rei's fingers add pressure just to the right spot he makes a sigh that briefly makes Rei pause to make sure the blond is okay. Maybe that knot was a little too sensitive or was that relief? When he gets a side glance questioning why he stopped, that's what encourages Rei to continue to massage his shoulders.  
“Nagisa... what if I gave you some incentive to FC that map?”  
Nagisa turns a bit to face him, “Hm? What would that be?”  
“Well... First, I would need to be honest with you about something.” Rei's eyes now have a hint of nervousness to that and it concerns Nagisa.  
“Um, is it something bad?”  
He blinks and then nervously chuckles, “Not really unless you say so.”  
Nagisa tenses back up again, “Tell me.” His rose quartz eyes stare into Rei's amethyst ones with an all too serious expression that locks Rei in his gaze.  
Rei clenches his fists a bit and decides to just say it, “Nagisa, I didn't think I'd be saying this here of all places... Remember a month or two ago, when we were talking in chat, and I said I really care about you?”  
The blond blinks and nods, “Yeah, has that... changed?”  
“Of course not, it's just I wasn't honest on the level of how much I care about you...” His eyes lightly look down at the top button of Nagisa's uniform so he doesn't have to look him in the eyes.  
“... Rei, what is it you wanna tell me?” His voice is lowered and cautious, as if to not scare off his best friend. The tension between them strings itself tighter and tighter until it breaks with the words from Rei's lips.  
“Nagisa, I love you... and more than just a friend.”  
For the blond, it's as if the world has short-circuited and his face slowly turns from surprise to confusion, “Huh?”  
A blush ignites across the bluenette's face and he stumbles a bit over his words, “I-I know it's not beautiful and I can a-accept if you reject my feelings. I wanna at least stay fr-”  
“Rei-chan, shush.” He quiets down and listens, “I accept your feelings but how... how does this have anything to do with helping me get better at this stupid game?”  
In a moment of awkwardness, they suddenly start laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. It's a hearty laugh shared between the two before Rei gives his reply.  
He adjusts his glasses before answering, “Well, my incentive for you to get better at this stupid game is that if you FC that map... I'll go on a date with you.”  
Despite Rei's blushing face, Nagisa takes the chance to be mischievous, “Oh? Is that all? I thought I'd get a kiss!”  
“D-Doesn't a date constitute a kiss?”  
It's Nagisa's turn to blush, “Not always... but I guess a date would be proof were together. We are a couple now, right?”  
Rei ponders this, “I guess we are since I confessed and you accepted... But how does my offer sound good?”  
“Sounds great, Rei-chan~” He smiles widely and happily. Rei gets a lot closer, “Um, Rei-chan why are you-” He shuts up when he feels lips on his forehead for a few brief seconds and then finds himself looking up into violet eyes.  
“You wanted a kiss... so that's what I'll give you for now.” The red in Rei's cheeks is reminds Nagisa of strawberries and his own probably match his new boyfriend in color. “We should get home.”  
The blond simply nods and takes his hand gently as they leave the clubroom together with their things. Now, Nagisa has one goal in mind with incentive now and that is to FC “Korekara no Someday” to win a date with his new boyfriend.

-...-

It only takes about a week and over several hundred retries but Nagisa managed to finally beat Nitori with only the encouragement of Rei, his advice and the stolen kisses throughout the week. Nagisa couldn't be happier but now finds himself wondering what map he should FC next to impress his beautiful lover. He stretches in his chair, ready to call him and ask him where he wants their first date to be.


End file.
